FanPost

In my opinion, Chase hasn't shown the consistency & presence I'd want in a veteran backup

Allow me to explain from what I remember seeing of him the past season and the Bengals preseason game. If I'm remembering anything in this post incorrectly I apologize if my memory is at all fuzzy.

First, Chase Daniel threw some pretty bad picks last year too, not just the one that happened in the Bengals game. In that preseason game against the Packers last year Chase had a really poorly thrown ball that was picked off and came out of the game fairly early. In that same game Bray also had an interception on an underthrown deep pass, but he also had 3 TDs to make up for that mistake and played pretty confidently overall. Throwing an interception on a deep pass downfield isn't anywhere near as bad as a poorly thrown short pass which could result in a pick six.

Chase also threw an interception when he took over for Alex Smith in the Redskins game last year, again on a poorly thrown ball which from what I remember was a bad overthrow. He would later play well enough for us to win against the Chargers I'll give him that, but if we didn't happen to have solid players like Knile Davis and others on the 2nd team the game is much different even with Chase at QB. Of course that's just my opinion and we could go back and forth about that game, but I'll give Chase some credit for that near win just not as much as some other people might.

More importantly though, the bulk of my complaints stem from the Bengals game which is a better indication of where Daniel is at right now. If not for that long Kelce touchdown which had more to do with Kelce's speed, statistically he would look much much worse than what the statline says, which looks good but isn't as good counting a pick six. I was at the preseason game high in the stands and got a good look at how he played. Too much of the time, he looked like a deer in the headlights honestly. He took several sacks, some on plays where a receiver appeared open but he chose not to throw it. Knile Davis was open in the middle on a checkdown route, but Chase didn't try flicking the ball to him before the pass rush sacked him. Albert Wilson was open a few times but Chase didn't throw him the ball, one of those times throwing a pass to Kyle Williams on a shorter route instead, who had to catch the ball going down to the ground. One of the few times Chase did throw the ball to Wilson he had to come way back to the ball because it was underthrown and it was short of the first down as a result. Then of course there was the terrible pass that sailed over Chase's intended receiver and was picked off for a TD. Literally the best play I saw from Chase the whole game was a scramble up the middle that got them some nice yardage, but passing wise he didn't look comfortable at all. True his protection wasn't very good, but Bray had even worse pass protection than what Daniel had and did a better job getting the ball upfield and not letting the pressure effect his throws. There was another play which involved a dumpoff to Kelce where he fought 4 defenders to get a few yards, but had Daniel not rushed himself to get rid of the ball so quickly taking the ultra safe throw the play could have gone for more yardage if he let the routes develop. Daniel did complete a good percentage of the passes he did throw so that's a plus, but not enough of a plus to negate the other times he just crumbled against the pressure from the defense. It also seems a bit misleading with his completion percentage considering several of the caught passes were on poorly thrown balls from Chase where receivers had to dive or go down for the ball, meaning no chance for yards after the catch like on the Kelce TD.

If the Bengals didn't hold onto the ball so long in the 2nd half I think we would have seen some more from Bray and what he can do, that pass he had to Harris was a nice throw while evading pressure, while Daniel was kinda bad facing pressure. Throwing the ball knowing you could take a hit is something you need your QB to be able to do. Bray did have that delay of game penalty but playing with the 3rd stringers I'd expect some annoying penalties to happen at some point, not sure if that one would fall on Bray or other guys not understanding their assignment. The fumble was a bad play on his part and is something he'll learn from (holding onto the ball with both hands), though that being said I want to see him with the 2nd team offense next time with receivers like Albert Wilson or Frankie Hammond who can get separation from the coverage, and De'Anthony Thomas coming out of the backfield. Working with 3rd string receivers probably caused him to hold onto the ball longer on that play where he fumbled waiting for someone to get open.

One thing Bray did do in the game which I don't remember the other QBs doing is leading a team on a long TD drive with a large number of plays that took time off the clock. It only involved Bray throwing once on the possession but it was a 13 play, 77 yard drive which took nearly 8 minutes off the clock and resulted in a TD, and the play which Bray threw on was a 3rd & 5 where Bray got the first down, which led to them getting a TD. Once we see Bray get some significant time to throw the ball around like in that Packers preseason game I think we'll see he'd be better to keep around than Daniel at this point (Except in the experience Daniel has, which Bray will get more of if he lands the backup job and sees the field more), and Bray holds a much lower cap hit. He has arm strength to zip the ball down the field, which is something none of our other QBs have. So at the very least with Bray as the backup, we can use plays we wouldn't be able to use with Daniel, and would be able to use Bray in hail mary situations if we had to with his arm.

This isn't an attack on Daniel at all, I'm sure he's a great guy and awesome when it comes to film study so I'm sure the coaches and other QBs like him around. But to me he seems like a QB that is much better on the sidelines with a clipboard than a QB on the field leading our offense. If I had to choose from what I've seen of each QB since they've arrived I'd choose Bray over Daniel. To me it's just a matter of who'll be better in the long run between Bray and Murray. I don't know if we'll be able to trade Daniel or if we'd have to end up cutting him but I think we all know if Alex Smith went down with injury we'd be in serious trouble anyway. At least in Bray's case though getting regular season experience would benefit him & the Chiefs much more so than it would benefit us with Daniel getting the starts. Developing a quarterback of the future to be that starter for years to come is one of those things you need to be able to do to have consistent success in this league, the last time the Chiefs had back to back playoff appearances was 1994-1995. Len Dawson was the last QB (and the only QB actually) to have won a playoff game in multiple seasons for us, and that was in the 60s.

All in all, the reasons to make Bray the backup over Daniel make more sense to me. Not keeping 4 QBs gives us an extra roster spot somewhere else (and with all these young WRs keeping an extra one would help), it saves us a bit of cap room to help in resigning any of our bigger players, and provides more long term QB competition between Bray and Murray. It also means we can spend most if not all of our draft picks the next few years at other positions to build around our two young QBs, rather than spending more draft picks (particularly a high round pick) on additional QBs.

A bit long winded I know, sorry about that. What do you guys think of the situation after the first preseason game? I'd love to hear other takes on this since everyone seems so split on what the heck we should do between keeping either Daniel or Bray, or possibly keeping 4 QBs since Bray and Murray wouldn't make it to the practice squad this year.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of Arrowhead Pride's writers or editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of Arrowhead Pride writers or editors.